love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

Yes, there’s no fucking way it’s in the guidelines, apart from a passing ref from Deputy CMO made weeks after his trip. Wonder if he’ll last until next PMQs

Knight Andrew Lilico
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYpuzYRWoAMMWsk?format=jpg&name=large

There are several Laura K tweets after that suggesting this isn't going away.

Given that virtually everyone - the media, the civil service, rival Brexiter camps, is desperate to get rid of Cummings this might be the start of open season on him. I wonder if Johnson has convinced himself he can't survive without him or if Cummings has something else on him.

Yes, I think there’s a reasonable chance this does for him.

The five-dimensional chess master, undone by a nosy neighbour who dobbed him in to the filth

What is Lolico for? Is there a soul alive who doesn't think he's a lickspittle cunt?

yes, and his name is andrew lolico

Johnson has presumably been protecting him too - he was ill at the same time, so might have some room to say he didn’t know he’d done it.

What is Lolico for?

true satire or something, he's much funnier than any bbc comedy I can think of.

If he turned out to be a slow-burn parody account it would be surprising, but not *that* surprising.

Remember this? How does a person even dare to assert that this is the opinion they hold?

There is not a "huge problem with racism and prejudice across the whole uk political spectrum". Just in the Corbynite bit of Labour. The rest of the UK mainstream political spectrum isn't racist at all. https://t.co/VDpkJORrH4

— Andrew Lilico (@andrew_lilico) April 2, 2018

The Cummings farrago is the first news story to give me genuine pleasure in months. Will be less pleasurable if he manages to squirm out of it with job intact.

Which he will.

Talking of squirming, watching BBC Breakfast this morning it was painful to watch Naga Munchetty having act as Dominic Cummings' defence counsel when interviewing Ian Blackford - I know that's what she's paid for but ffs.

The "I was just looking after my family" defence appears to have only made people angrier. Its also full of holes re: the claim that it was all within the rules really.

First genuine test of Sir Forensic next week I think. Boris hasn't stepped up to defend Cummings yet either fwiw.

More to the point playing fast and loose with the rules in order to defend your mate when he broke them is going to sow more confusion with the wider public and lead to unnecessary deaths.

No 10 official statement doesn’t say they stand behind him either - says Cummings believes he did nothing wrong, which is leaving a canyon right in front of him by their standards.

http://www.thebohemianblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Rasputin-Story-1a-VISION.jpg

I don't recall the BBC expecting interviewers to put Catherine Calderwood's side of the story when she got caught redhanded - or that guy who was popping out for a quick shag.

I mean on one hand this is an absolutely classic "don't become the story" but really he's going to stand or fall on the extent to which Johnson feels he can't do without him. There can't be a shortage of people to replace him with but maybe Cummings has convinced Johnson he has some special magical dark arts disruptive shit that none of the others have.

I can see him resigning and then being brought back into the fold later on when this has died down. Mandelson managed to pull that trick twice and even Alistair Campbell managed to come back once.

Yes, I think a short spell to be off writing blogs and then a return in time for Brexit. Christ, if Patel can get back in then Cummings can.

I think if there was even a remote chance of him resigning you wouldn’t have Raab and Sunak out there caping for him but idk.

Gove too - all coordinated.

Yes, they are beyond shame now.

I think the resignation comes, if it does, partly because of the drubbing all three are now getting. As well as the usual lot this is outraging precisely those people that Tories listen to: cross grandparents.

Well, you would think so, but UK oldsters are increasingly showing signs of Trumpian delusional behaviour.

this feels like getting al capone for tax fraud, ngl

also dunno how much the tories are truly listening to the demographic that they cheerfully decided to lead to its own extinction earlier this year

Cummings knows where the bodies are buried. The wagons are already circled.

Capone went to prison, lost his marbles due to syphilis, died a dribbling vegetable. Don't see the problem there.

also dunno how much the tories are truly listening to the demographic that they cheerfully decided to lead to its own extinction earlier this year

And who are cheerfully still supporting them.

That's the thing - I don't think they are circled. People on the payroll (and Lolico) are speaking up, but as far as I can see hardly anybody else is, most of the usual outriders are calling for him to go.

"It's not a crime to look after your children" is a terrible message to a set of people that haven't seen adult children+ grandchildren for months — and who you are asking to continue not seeing them. A route out of this might have been "yes he did wrong but", but this lot are literally incapable of admitting even the tiniest error, let alone this.

i think there are two components to the defence: 1. to obfuscate exactly what he did and 2. to emphasise how what he did was nbd

so how he gets nailed is if it can be shown very clearly 1. what he did and 2. why it is a bd

Tory backbenchers are getting restless and aggy as well, you can tell. And a lot of them hate Cummings, so there's hay to be made there.

One of the reasons Starmer was able to force a u-turn on the NHS surcharge was because Johnson was already weak there - it was already a bone of contention on the Conservative benches (plus it was unpopular with the wider country).

what i am not understanding at all is the 'travelled 250 miles so his parents could help with childcare'

were they travelling in the opposite direction? did his children come with him? this is so nuts i can't even cope with the reasoning

I would expect Dominic Cummings' children to have been able to show sufficient fight and self-sufficiency to look after themselves if both their parents were incapacitated and if the house burned down in the meantime then too bad. After all they could just rebuild it themselves.

if he resigns he'll only come back again, like he did last time

Like coronavirus.

It's telling that some Randian-lite blowhard is considered an irreplaceable intellectual giant among the Tory ranks, the thought of Johnson flailing to make some kind of sense without old pumpkin-face Wormtongue whispering in his ear is cringe-inducing.

Today Michael @MichaelRosenYes has been in hospital for 8 weeks & I'm v happy to say he left ICU yesterday after a long & difficult 47 days.His recovery is continuing on the Ward & will take time. He has done so well to get through this but please don't expect him back here yet❤️

— Emma-Louise Williams (@Underthecranes) May 23, 2020

they saved him when his bum popped :)

eight weeks, jesus

glad he’s on the mend, we need him back tirelessly harassing john mann on twitter

Laura K deserves to be sent into orbit for what she did last night, but she won’t because this is a normal country.

Is it true that hundreds of bots started tweeting about Stephen Kinnock at the point at which this story broke last night?

Don't get me wrong, anything that shows up Stephen Kinnock is fine with me but still...

even soulless bot-egg armies on twitter possess more political integrity and genuine sentience than Skinnock tbf to them

In what way is Skinnock not an eggbot himself?

lol!

Keep baldies out of politics.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/4fc7b63cd70014008ea60b77d58e2496/tenor.gif

*tugs collar*

If you are concerned about people ignoring social distancing rules in our parks and open spaces, please ☎️ our anti-social behaviour line on 020 7527 7272.

https://t.co/MaOwCGm9wD

#LondonTogether #SocialDistancing #COVID19

— Islington Council (@IslingtonBC) May 23, 2020